Tenno Rising
by Arkarian23
Summary: A Tenno wakes up.


Chapter 1 Wake up!

Awareness came slowly. Like the light of a train coming towards you in a tunnel it approached slowly and then seemed to strike all at once with blinding light and force. I snapped into consciousness only in time to see the cold stone floor rushing towards me. The truth was, I was rushing into it.

"Ten… …an you hea…" A woman's voice buzzed distantly in my ear as if from a great distance, static distorted some of the words beyond recognition. I tried to move my arms or respond verbally, but I felt as weak as a baby. No words came. I felt lightheaded and fragile, there was a complete blank in my mind, no memories came to help me understand the situation I was suddenly in and I felt a moment of hysterical panic as I realised I didn't even know who I was before iron walls of control slammed down that I didn't know I had.

"You have to get… …Vor, he is goi… …hold on if you can… …their way." The voice came again, slightly stronger but still almost unintelligible.

I heard a noise, metal clanking on stone and managed to move my head to see some sort of creature strafing around me, a weapon of some sort poised to open fire. It was bulky and a burnt orange colour near the top, with a white faceplate, a facsimile of a face or perhaps a skull positioned roughly in the middle. The majority of the creature seemed to compose of iron grey metal with spindly clawed feet and arms.

"Ah…" a gravely and somewhat raspy voice came from in front of me, "You're alive. _Good_."

I struggled to angle my head towards the noise and saw more of the creatures, surrounding the room in a position that enabled them all to fire on me with their guns without risking hitting their comrades. In the middle, walking slowly towards me was another one, though this one was far less bulky on top and had its face revealed to show a disgusting scarred parody of what a face should look like. On its chest was some sort of bright gold item embedded into the cold dark grey of its body, in its hands it held a collection of orange spheres. Of varying sizes, with smaller brighter coloured orange nodules on them.

I could feel some of my strength returning, power coursing through my body. I managed to push a hand under my body, just as the thing reached me and thrust a clawed foot down onto my back. My strength left me and I was pushed down again into the dusty floor with a thud. I felt him place something against my back, and then on my outer left calf where they stuck tight and uncomfortably. I was roughly turned over, and he immediately pushed another against my chest, above the right pectoral.

He stepped back quickly as electricity arced painfully from the points of contact, coursing through my chest and sapping whatever energy I had recovered. My spine arched and if I could have at that moment, I would have screamed.

As the intense pain stopped I was left limp like a puppet without its strings on the floor. As I lost unconsciousness I heard the voice again. Her voice was breaking, like she was about to cry. "We will save you Tenno," she said, "I promise."

 **TR**

I woke instantaneously and took in my surroundings, my body was spread-eagled and pressed into a human shaped indentation in the wall. I briefly struggled but my bonds held. They were made of a cold metal that refused to budge in the slightest which seemed to come from the wall and had no caps that I might be able to wedge open. The room I was in was not particularly large and empty of much except a few consoles that were well out of my reach in my current predicament. The lighting was a burnt angry orange that reminded me of the colours of my captors.

Taking a closer inventory of myself I saw that the orange machines were still pressed into my chest, and moving my legs and head, as little as I could, let me feel that the other two were still there also.

For a moment all I felt was rage, I was imprisoned without being given the chance to fight back against my captors. It felt insulting. Whenever I managed to escape from this prison I intended to show the asshole who captured me exactly who they were messing with. Right now all I could do was think though, the voice I heard before I had been captured had seemed worried for me and presumably opposed to my captors. It sounded like help had been coming but hadn't arrived in time to prevent my abduction. They might be on their way to rescue me right now, though that itself seemed unlikely.

The voice from before probably didn't have any way of tracking me easily, especially if our mutual enemy was competent which seemed likely. Whoever they were, hopefully they might be able to help me with my complete lack of memory which was a massive worry. I had no real way of telling friend or foe except by their immediate actions at this point and that would always leave me on the back foot with any dealings I might make, assuming I escaped from these people who were _definitely_ enemies.

As I was running through potential escape ideas I heard the door across from me open to admit the one with the scarred face. He stopped just inside the door with two guards flanking him from outside. He stood there a moment and looked at me smugly as I looked silently back. "Hey asshole!" I shouted at his smug grin, but no sound issued out around me despite the fact I was clearly able to hear the words being said. Was I mute? I knew I had spoken but no noise had issued out. Was it something they had done to me?

Unaware of my internal panic the scarred man averted his gaze after a moment and moved to one of the consoles. A few seconds later a holographic screen had lit up above it, showing a white porcelain face with two spikes of white hair, twisted into horns at angles on its head.

"Captain Vor!" the childlike voice of the _thing_ said happily, like a little girl might address a favourite pet "You almost interrupted my sister's mealtime." Her voice, for it could only be a she, took a complete one eighty and became full of malice, "What is it?"

Vor bowed his head in respect, "I apologise for the intrusion my queen," he began, "but I have good news, and a gift."

The queen cocked her head to the side. "Oh? And what is that?" she asked curiously.

Vor tapped a few buttons on the console and I saw the girl's face light up in glee as her view was changed to observe my bound condition. "Oh you found a Tenno and a working one at that, splendid! My sister is going to be so happy to hear that our faith in you was not misplaced after all."

"With your permission my Queen, I received intel yesterday of a small trading outpost. I would like to test my control over the Tenno in a more controlled environment before we test it in open battle. My ship is headed to the outpost near Mercury right now that I understand contains many traders who act indirectly against the Grineer Empire's interests."

"A capital idea," The Queen said, "see that the settlement is destroyed either way, once it is done send a report immediately when you have finished exterminating everything not of value in the settlement."

"It shall me done, my Queen," Vor replied before she cut the connection and the screen went blank. Vor turned towards me.

"Well!" he said cheerfully, "It looks like you will be seeing combat on behalf of your new masters soon Tenno. I hope you enjoy it, because this is your life now." With a chuckle, he left the room and left me to my thoughts again.

They called me 'Tenno' but was that a name or a title? The Queen implied that it was a name of some sort but not a personal name. What was a Tenno anyway? What would it mean? This Vor character seemed to think I'd be fighting for him and his mistress, this Grineer empire. That wasn't bloody likely at this point but he seemed very confident in himself. I resolved to prepare myself mentally for whatever he had planned, I would take any opportunity to escape I spotted.

 **TR**

It was several hours later that the door opened again admitting two of the Grineer who carried with them an assortment of weapons. Behind them came Vor and his two guards.

"It's almost time Tenno," he said as the weapons were dropped on the floor by the two Grineer who both made for a console. Vor pulled the golden object from his chest and inspected it for a few seconds.

The Grineer must have done something because the metal holding me in place unlocked and receded into the wall behind me and I fell to the floor. Immediately I leapt for Vor who turned the golden object towards me. It suddenly burst in a beam of golden light that collided painfully with my chest and pushed me back into the wall I had just been released from. A second later and it stopped and I found myself on hands and knees on the floor again with Vor laughing above me.

"Now now, little Tenno," he said and then nodded to the Grineer at the consoles. They typed something else into the machine and my muscles seized up. I couldn't move at all.

"Hmmm, now," Vor said, stepping back, "arm yourself."

Against my own wishes I felt my body move, reaching for the weapons on the floor and examining them. I observed the rifles, they were crude bulky things the same colours as the Grineer favoured. There were a few smaller pistols and two melee weapons, a small handheld curved blade and a much larger machete. Both weapons didn't look too sturdy but I saw that each one had machinery in place that presumably created a superheated edge that would easily cut through many metals and armour. With no input from myself I found my body picking up a strange bulky pistol with a large protrusion in front of the grip that presumably did something but for the life of me I couldn't tell. I attached the garishly orange weapon to my thigh before reaching for the machete and attaching it on my back.

I stood up at attention, feeling powerless against whatever was controlling my actions. I glared at Vor, willing myself to draw the weapon and decapitate the monster before me but my body didn't respond to any commands.

"Excellent!" Vor said appraisingly, "now follow me."

Against my wishes I followed the Grineer captain out through the doors and through the ship. The rest of it was just as dark and miserable as my prison had been, with Grineer scattered around various points performing various tasks or just patrolling the ship. I wasn't given much of an opportunity to sightsee though and it was only after few minutes of following Vor that we reached our destination.

The room was spacious, which was a good thing as it was full of Grineer soldiers lining the walls. The overall structure was much of the same iron grey and orange, though the wall facing the door inside was at a forty-five-degree slant with grips lined along it. With anger I realised where I had been taken. This was the landing party for whichever group Vor planned to attack and I was going to be a part of it.

Vor looked around at the surrounding commandos. "Your orders are to destroy the settlement, leave anything of value but burn the rest. You will be operating with this Tenno," Vor says, pointing towards me with a deformed metallic arm. "Leave it alone and do not get involved in any fights it starts, this is a test to see its capabilities."

I mentally scowl at his referral to me as an 'it'. Not being able to decapitate the old man like I desperately wanted to at this point I settled for thinking of all artful things I would say to him if I could only speak my mind out loud.

Vor gave the Grineer soldiers more orders and then turns to me. "You are to pass through the settlement and kill anything you find that isn't allied to the Grineer empire."

I felt and saw myself nodding in understanding and the Grineer smirks before reaching up slightly to pat me on my cheek. "There's a good Tenno, have fun," he said, before leaving the hangar.

 **TR**

I feel _something_ and knew the ship was breaking through the atmosphere of the planet as it rapidly lowered down to the ground. A couple of minutes later and the thud of the ship touching down made itself known followed immediately by the ramp lowering, exposing us to the hot dry air of Mercury.

I felt my body moving and I ran down the ramp outstripping the Grineer easily who moved out more slowly to surround the settlement.

The entire facility consisted of several small partially underground installations that were connected via tunnels, there were a few gaps in the rock face exposing the area to the outside, some of which had stairs leading down below. In my case I leapt down through what I assumed to be an opening for ventilation and cooling. Heat rose past me as I dropped into the cool shade below, away from the burning sunshine above.

I braced myself as I landed from what must have been a fifty foot drop. I landed silently behind a green bipedal machine with a small turret mounted on its head. I pulled my machete and activated a switch to the side that caused it to instantly heat up and thrum with the sound of the many volts running through the now superheated edge. The relatively quiet noise alerted the machine and it made to turn around, I sliced off its legs and then its head in two quick controlled motions. The decapitated machine fell to the floor in four parts. Silently, I continued forward into the outpost proper.

I looked up as an alarm is sounded, presumably the Grineer outside had been spotted or my killing of the machine had alerted the traders. The area around me was empty and I was a passenger as I saw myself running towards a nearby door which openned as I approached it. On the other side there was a much wider open area, completely open to the air with various platforms arranged at intervals for easy movement. There were what appeared at a first glance to be stalls of varying kinds scattered about, embedded in the surrounding rock face. Despite seemingly being more exposed to the arid desert above me, the sun was not directly shining down into the enclosure and the air was noticeably cooler and more pleasant. I hadn't been spotted as I entered due to the panic that had already spread with the alarm. Already the merchants and surrounding people were running around, some wielding weapons of various types and others being ushered away by guards or other civilians.

I spotted a child being dragged away by it's mother and prayed that they would manage to escape what was about to happen because I was already moving into the crowd.

Men and Women screamed as I began to cut my way through them, the Grineer soldiers arrived through a number of doors and shouted commands before raising their weapons. Screams echoed around me as the soldiers opened fire on anything not in my direct path.

In mere minutes, the area was left devoid of life except for myself and the Grineer. From above, a floating machine glides into the centre of the market area and Vor's voice issues from it.

"All Grineer are to spread out and find any survivors. There are escape hatches and ships hidden throughout the settlement, break off into units of five, find them and kill anyone inside. Tenno, you are also to hunt down any survivors and kill them."

The device made a strange humming noise and then went silent. The Grineer soldiers went to work, higher ranked units shouting for nearby soldiers to join them as they broke out into parties to hunt any hopeful survivors. I cursed Vor again as I began to run towards another hatchway, the same as the mother and child had entered mere minutes ago and prayed that they had already escaped.

I slowed down as I entered the new area, inspecting any potential hidey holes or traps that had been left for me. Which there appeared to be none. The area consisted on a number of walkways that were arranged to allow movement across a small chasm. A few large spikey plants grew against the dry unyielding rock which I spotted as I walked through to the next room.

It was through two more doors that I found signs of life. This next area was not dissimilar to the previous rooms but with the rock face having been cut out in place of some large bore device that sunk through the rock below. I had entered at the lowest level of several rock outcroppings that had been carved so they approached and surrounded the machine but did not touch it directly. There was a large enough gap between platforms of rock that I would be able to jump between them and I spotted a few staircases at either side of the space that a normal being would be able to use to reach the upper floors. There were voices above me and I was given barely any notice as I immediately leapt upwards, through the gap onto the next level.

Still, the noises were above me and I made to jump again, landing perfectly with my Grineer given machete already drawn and ready.

I was surprised at what I saw and I hesitated briefly. On the other side of the machine a man dressed in shades of blue or maybe violet was ushering the same mother and child as before through another door. What surprised me the most was that there was what had to be a Grineer assisting him. It was green with a lighter coloured pattern across it's armour plates and had a facemask similar to ones I had seen before but fixed at an angle.

It was carrying a large bag of something which it unceremoniously threw in after the mother and child. My moment of indecision cost me as the Grineer turned around and immediately spotted me crouched on the other side of the platform.

"Clem!" It shouted, alerting its companion who turned around and saw me. He gasped and backed away into the open door.

"Damn, I thought the news about Vor catching a Tenno was just propaganda," the man said, "The Lotus will want to be informed of this right away." Right then there was a rumble in the facility as something exploded relatively nearby.

"Clem!" The Grineer shouted, waving its arm towards the man, indicating he should go through the door.

"Are you sure? It'll take me a few minutes to prime the engines before we can escape, can you manage that long?"

The Grineer didn't respond verbally, instead it stepped to the side to cover the doorway and drew _two_ of the Grineer machineguns Vor's men favoured from its side. The rifles were called Grakatas, some part of my mind informed me. It then raised them in some sort of battle stance I had never seen before. The left arm was raised, and bent slightly with the gun pointed at an angle above and away from him, leaving plenty of room to shoot with the other rifle like some sort of improvised guard stance.

The man nodded solemnly, "good luck my friend, stay safe." He pressed a button somewhere to the side of the door and it sealed shut with finality.

I knew the limits of the weapons that Vor had given me and didn't even try raising the machete to block the _wave_ of bullets that issued out of the Grineer's gun with a staccato beat that echoed loudly off the walls. Instead I jumped to the side, using the drill's fairly large profile to provide cover as I ran to the right around the side of the drill in order to close the distance.

As I came around, running at speed with my machete drawn I saw the Grineer had had the same thought and had apparently decided to close the distance aswell.

We were on each other in moments, I swung my machete in an uppercut, attempting to bisect the Grineer from sternum to shoulder. The Grineer pushed his left arm forward and down in the path of my swing, catching the superheated edge against his rifle which despite my expectations held firm against the cutting edge. He then swung his other arm downwards and knocked me to the side before sweeping his left Grakata in the direction I had moved, leaving another trail of bullets that I rolled quickly to avoid, barely moving past him and not falling over the rock's edge as I did so. Instead of hitting me they instead hit the drill where they left an array of huge dents in the powerful metal that no ordinary firearm should have been able to produce.

I rolled into a standing position a few metres behind and to the side of the Grineer and pulled my pistol from my hip. I didn't doubt for a second that a few rounds from either of those two rifles would end the fight right there, I needed to close the distance or take him out from range. Taking aim, I fired the pistol with precision I didn't know I had. The bullet should have passed clean through the Grineer's faceplate. Instead, the Grineer casually brought up its Grakata and deflected the bullet with casual precision and then made to aim its two Grakatas towards me.

I realised that I wouldn't be able to take him out at range if he could manage to deflect my bullets like that, I would have to reengage in close quarters. Firing towards him blindly I tried to cover my approach back into melee range while preparing for an overhand swing with the machete.

I ran out of ammunition in the gun's clip and threw it aside as I finished closing the distance before I swung my weapon at him again. The Grineer recovered quickly from blocking _all_ my shots and once again brought a Grakata upwards to block the attack before responding with a sideways sweep of its other rifle, trigger pulled all the way, it left an arc of death that I barely dodged by leaning backwards. I could've sworn I felt the air displaced by the bullets as they passed above me.

We entered into a deadly dance, my swinging machete versus his two Grakatas. Had I a better weapon I might have won the engagement already, but the machete having only one cutting edge and no piercing point limited my options for attacking to wild swings and slashes. The Grineer had no handicap to adjust to and whatever bizarre yet highly effective martial style he engaged in was quite frankly terrifying. Between the heavy weight of the swinging weapons and deadly volleys of well-aimed bullets I was hard pressed to keep close to the Grineer and keep us on an equal footing.

What was worse despite the incredibly volleys of shrapnel it produced, it never seemed to run out of ammunition. The packs at its waist must have been stocked with ammo as whenever a clip seemingly ran out in one of its rifles It disengaged the clip from the rifle while simultaneously moving it down to its waist and attaching the next clip of ammunition seamlessly. It managed this while engaging me in a fast paced melee fight in what I knew instinctively was my own 'turf' so to speak.

Swinging wildly, I managed to catch the inside of the Grineer's rifle before it could swing it in my direction. The Grineer had already pulled the trigger though and the impossibly dangerous rounds sprayed away from us, colliding with a nearby container. I barely spotted the red barrel as the bullets collided with it and it exploded violently, flinging both myself and my opponent away from each other.

I recovered midair and landed on my feet with my machete raised in a defensive posture, but my opponent was nowhere to be seen. The sound of engines above me made me look up to the next level of the room. Jumping past the drill I landed on what must have been the top floor as the sun shone down through another hole in the ceiling above me. The Grineer was already there, holding onto a rope that had been lowered through the hole by a ship hovering above. With one hand it gripped the rope while another was holding onto one of its Grakatas. It saw me as I landed and raised the gun as the rope started to ascend. I instinctively back-flipped away from the raised weapon but it did not aim the gun at me, instead it fired to the side.

I was completely unprepared for the explosion that went off behind me. With the limited balance I had from my manoeuvre I was unable to control my flight and was flung forward with no direction as several more explosions shortly followed in a chain reaction around the room. Above me parts of the stone ceiling collapsed, landing on me as I was flung away from the direction I had rolled towards a second previously.

I struck the ground painfully, held down by the heavy orange stone. I was completely unable to move. I was grateful though. This rebel Grineer had managed to stop me from hurting anyone else and for that I was grateful. The man he had sent away before our fight seemed to know what I was. Hopefully he would be able to help me somehow but for now I had to wait to be retrieved by my Grineer captors.

 **TR**

I was bound again to the wall of what had become my prison. Vor was stood against one of the consoles making his report on my performance during the mission.

"It was a success my Queens," the Grineer Commander said, "the Tenno performed well and followed orders to the letter with no hesitation or deviation, just as expected."

There was a short silence on the other line before another voice that immediately put me on edge answered. "but what of its defeat?" The voice was decrepit and ancient, cruel, it immediately put me on edge.

Vor immediately responded, "There were unforeseen circumstances, we didn't know that _Clem_ would be there."

Again there was silence before the childlike voice of the other Queen replied, "I suppose we can forgive this failure then," she said calmly, "nothing ever goes entirely to plan when Clem is involved. If only his loyalty conditioning hadn't failed, he would have been a remarkable commander."

"Thank you, my Queen," Vor said at her forgiveness. "Am I to take it that we shall continue to test the Tenno's capabilities or should we use it in a larger engagement?

"I think we have seen enough to know that the Tenno won't be able to break the ascaris' hold," The younger Queen said, "This is well timed though because we have received word of the location of the Steel Meridian's current leadership, including Cressa Tal."

Vor grinned cruelly, "I take it I am to eliminate them?"

"Yes," The older Queen replied, "Co-ordinates will be sent shortly, there are to be no _mistakes_ this time Vor. Lead the attack and take the Tenno with you, I expect to see you holding that _traitor's_ head personally on our next communication."

Vor nodded in supplication. "It shall be done my Queens," he said before the transmission ended and he turned to look at me directly.

"It looks like you'll be meeting some friends of your kind shortly Tenno," Vor said, "don't worry I'll make sure you're the one to strike the killing blow." With a careless wave and a bark or laughter Vor left the room.

TR

We landed in another desert landscape, not much different to the landscape I had been sent before. Grineeer rushed past myself and Vor to secure the entrance to an underground facility, built of the same design as the Grineer used but lit much more brightly with white lights rather than the angry orange of Vor's ship.

Vor stood back and relayed orders through one of the floating machines from before, co-ordinating strikes from multiple points he managed the engagement with precision without even the use of a map to keep track of where the individual Grineer troops were deployed. In minutes the outer defences of the area had been breached and Vor commanded me to follow as he walked into the facility.

The sounds of gunfire echoed around us as we made our way deeper into the facility and I caught brief glimpses of fighting through the corridors. Vor's Grineer soldiers were making quick work of what looked like other Grineer troops in lighter, white tinted armour. The white Grineer seemed sluggish and had poor aim compared to Vor's men who were dispatching them easily. Vor was silent as we walked, followed by the floating coms machine. Suddenly noise issued from the machine, the voice of a Grineer relayed something to Vor in a dialect I couldn't understand.

"Do not engage her," he said, "form a perimeter and…"

Vor was cut off by the sounds of gunfire and static on the other end before another voice came out of the machine.

"Vor?" the female voice said, "If you want me you'll have to send more than a few puny grunts!"

There was a loud bang of metal bouncing off metal and then we heard the sound of a gun firing before the line went dead.

Vor growled and grabbed the com machine in the air, pushing buttons and reading a readout on a screen on its side. "We can't let her get away. Tenno, with me!" he shouted before running off a side corridor. I followed behind him, keeping pace easily with the clunky movements of the Commander's machine body.

 **TR**

We came through a door into a large open room. It must have been fifty feet high and twice as large in both directions. In the center of the room was a raised platform that had a number of consoles on it. The room was empty aside from another of the Grineer's floating communication machines that lay in the centre of the platform with a smoking crater in its side. Vor saw that the room was indeed empty and rushed onto the platform and began typing into one of the consoles while I stood idle to the side.

As Vor was typing the screens on each of the consoles lit up and a face framed by an off-white hood appeared. "Vor!" Cressa Tal's voice rang cheerfully from the computer's speakers, "we're glad you could make it, oh and thanks for bringing the Tenno."

The feed cut off abruptly and the screens went black before I heard a sudden rush of air behind me. I and Vor turned around to see a figure standing before us on the platform. It was perhaps an inch shorter than me. It had a female body shape which was coloured yellow with blue highlights. She had a helmet that looked like it contained a miniature star system inside, a word formed in my mind. " _Mag_ ," I said to myself.

We were so engrossed in looking at the other ' _Tenno'_ I told myself that neither myself or Vor reacted in time when something _crashed_ down between us, creating a shockwave that flung us away from each other. I flipped back into a standing position and saw what had caused the explosion.

Climbing from the twisted metal left in the midst of its impact with the platform was another much larger Warframe. It was a light shade of grey on its stomach but had armoured plates covering the chest and the rest of its body that were a darker shade, almost black. The armour plates were rough and battleworn, like the hide of an animal that charged in head first, confident in its ability to survive anyone or anything. " _Rhino"_.

Then my eyes were diverted to the _impressive_ piece of armour jutting between his legs. For a moment I felt irrationally self-conscious.

"Tenno, help has arrived." The woman who spoke to me when I woke up sounded out loud and clear in my head. That in of itself was slightly disturbing but I'd take whatever help I could get at this point.

Vor had landed much less graciously than I had. It took a few seconds for him to stand back up and observe these new threats with a scowl. "This was all an elaborate ploy to bring me here?" He asked.

Neither of the two new arrivals replied. The Rhino went to stand opposite Vor while Mag went to stand in front of me. She reached behind her shoulder and from seemingly nowhere she withdrew a sword from her back. It was almost transparent with a purple hue running through the blade, definitely superior to my machete.

On the other side of the room I heard the sound of metal scraping on metal and saw that the Rhino was covered in a glowing silver sheen that seemed to move around his body like liquid mercury. Falling into a combat stance with his right foot forward and his weight balanced on his back leg, Rhino lifted his arm to Vor and made a 'come here' motion.

"Tenno, attack the other one then assist me," Vor growled as he reached for the golden trinket on his chest. The Rhino must have decided that Vor wasn't going to come to him and chose to bring the fight to the Commander instead. The Rhino surged forward with a speed that defied reason and the battle was on.

I had already drawn my machete and sized up my opponent, who made no moves to engage me just yet. I don't know what she was thinking as she stood in a ready position with her sword. At an unspoken signal we ran at each other and our blades met in a shower of sparks.

I immediately pulled back from the stalemate and swung my machete horizontally but Mag jumped back to avoid the swipe before jumping back and swinging her blade down on me. I managed to raise the machete with one hand on the hilt and the other on the back of the blade to block the heavy overhand swing.

I jumped to the left and twisted my body, spinning the Machete clockwise I swiped for her neck but she ducked under and made to stab me. I was forced to twist my body at an angle to avoid the sharp edge and she took advantage of my lack of balance to begin a series of rapid slashes and stabs that put me on the back foot.

I was pushed backwards a few steps at her sudden aggression but managed to re-orientate myself and brought my blade to catch hers and we were forced to a stop. Our faces were inches from each other and I looked into the faceless helm filled with stars. I could feel her staring back even if I couldn't see her face. We were forced to push off each other and away as an errant beam of golden light bisected the point we were met just a moment ago.

From the corner of my eye I saw Vor and Rhino fighting. Rhino had produced a giant hammer from somewhere and was rushing to catch the slippery Vor who was somehow teleporting around the room in brilliant flashes of golf light. Each teleport Vor tried to aim the golden object towards the Rhino but he was always on Vor before he could aim properly and Vor was forced to teleport away each time. Sometimes Vor managed to fire his weapon but was firing his beam wildly as he did so. I could see why they had sent the Rhino to engage Vor. As it was, Vor was gaining his footing with every attack between them and his attacks were becoming more accurate every second.

Mag didn't give me a chance to recover and we were back at it again, trading swings of our weapons as errant beams of light struck around us.

I raised my machete again to attack but Mag raised her empty hand and grasped at the air. I felt a force and the machete was flung from my grasp and behind her. As I was unarmed, she leapt forward to stab me through the stomach. I rolled to the left, underneath her sword towards my own as one of Vor's attacks struck her from the same direction and sent her tumbling away.

I grasped my machete from the floor and turned towards her. Her sword had been sent flying away from her and she laid on the floor unresponsive. Walking towards her slowly I stood above her prone form on the floor. I felt myself raising the sword against my would be saviour.

"Tenno no!" I heard the voice of the woman again, "you must fight the ascaris!"

I growled in the silence nobody else could hear. "I don't want to hurt you!" I shouted as I fought against my body.

I tried to resist the commands of my body. I flung all my will and desperation against the machines controlling me and for a moment I felt my body hesitate. Mag shook her head on the floor; she was recovering but not fast enough to stop me.

Then I heard the sound of electricity crackling behind me. Looking over my shoulder I caught a glimpse of the machine Vor had placed there before. It was charred and broken where something had struck it, electricity sparked on exposed and broken wires. With a start I realised that as I had rolled under mag's sword it had been struck by Vor's weapon as I went past.

With renewed zeal I threw everything I had into resisting the pull of the machine on my body. I heard the machine sparking behind me and suddenly a small explosion went off against my back and I had control again!

I lowered my weapon as the other two machines fell off me inert without the third to help maintain their control.

I heard a triumphant shout and I turned around to see Vor had caught Rhino with his weapon. He was firing the golden beam relentlessly down into Rhino who had been pushed to one knee as the attack continued.

With the sound of torn metal, I saw Rhino's glowing armour shatter into nothing and the beam continued past that. It tore through his armoured body and left a gaping hole in his chest.

Rhino collapsed to the floor with a thud.

Vor looked down on his defeated foe before turning to observe the rest of the room. His eyes landed on Mag on the floor and then on me.

"You beat her?" he asked. I didn't reply, just stood silently watching the man that had no more control over me. "Kill her," Vor commanded.

I didn't turn towards Mag, instead I raised the machete and started running towards him. Vor spotted the Ascaris' remains on the floor and immediately raised his weapon against me. He fired it but I rolled out of the way and kept running. Not relenting Vor redirected the beam towards me but I leapt up in the air away from the attack.

Mid-air I raised my machete to slam it down on Vor but he ended the attack and quickly raised the golden weapon towards me and fired it again, sending me flying back the way I had come.

I landed on my feet and barely raised the machete in time to block the heavy force of the beam on its edge. The force of it pushed me back and my feet slid against the floor as I was pushed backwards.

Vor pulled the weapon in his hands back to his chest before pushing it forward again and the force of the attack became stronger. A moment later and the machete broke in two and I was sent flying away again to land a few feet away from Mag.

"Silly Tenno. You should know by now you're no match for me on your own. Just look at what I did to your friends!" Vor shouted triumphantly.

I rolled onto my hands and knees and saw to the side of me that Mag had recovered enough to see what was going on.

Vor had made his way towards me with a swagger in his step.

"Clearly the ascaris didn't have a strong enough hold. I'm sure my Queens will forgive me if I bring them the heads of three Tenno though." Vor said contemplatively.

Casually Vor raised the golden weapon towards me.

Mag looked at me from the floor and I looked back, despite our armoured helms we made eye contact and I instinctively knew what she was going to do as she weakly raised her arm.

Golden energy built up in Vor's fist as a yellow energy twisted around Mag's sword.

Vor brought his weapon down and the beam fired as the sword flew through the air and into my hands to deflect it.

I felt the word in my grasp. It was finely crafted and much stronger than the pathetic machete I had been given before. This was a real weapon. What's more I felt something else, an emptiness in the edge of the blade that I instinctively knew how to fill.

I felt the sword thrum with my power as I raised myself to a knee, my own strength flowing through it as it easily held back the unyielding assault from the Commander.

Vor redoubled his assault but it was no good and I stood up, holding back whatever bastardised power he had stolen. I took a step forward, then another. With a mighty slash I broke through Vor's attack, creating a shockwave that pushed him back and stopped his attack. Vor fell to one knee, his head lowered as he gasped for breath.

I stepped forward and raised the sword, point raised to deliver the final blow through his heart. As I made to stab through him, Vor suddenly lunged forward. He struck me in the face with the weapon as I thrust forward.

My blade through his chest he unleashed all his remaining strength through the weapon and I screamed as I felt it burn through my body. The golden energy flew around and through my body but I didn't relent, pulling to the side I dragged my blade through Vor's side and pulling it free, leaving a massive tear through the middle of his torso.

Vor screamed and let go of the ' _Void Key'_ the word slipped into my mind, but the assault on my body didn't cease. Instead I felt the energy permeate my body, the Key sticking fast to my face and burning through my armoured faceplate as the energy fed into me, _changed_ me. I felt myself lift off the floor as wind rushed around me in a spiral. A cacophony of sound erupted from the Golden key, like a thousand beautiful voices singing a thousand songs at once.

Just as suddenly as it had happened the influx of energy stopped and I fell down onto my feet. I stumbled back and away from my defeated enemy as my body adjusted to whatever had just happened.

Vor stopped screaming and managed to keep his kneeling position as he felt the openly bleeding gash in his side. I knew he wouldn't be able to recover from such an injury and no doubt so did he.

I regained my bearings again and lifted my arms to look at my faintly glowing body. Whatever had happened with the key, it was _good_. I felt reenergised. Power fed through my body and I stood up straight looking down on Vor who remained where he had fallen a few metres away from me.

Vor turned his hateful glowing yellow eyed face to look up at me as I looked down on him from my standing position.

With effort, he pushed himself into a standing position facing me. "Finish it," he said.

I gripped the sword with both hands. I felt for my new reserves of strength and fed them into the blade which lit up the room with the golden light that fed from it.

I ran forward and swung the glowing blade in a circle as I ran past the Grineer Commander. I held my position with the sword held outstretched to the side as I heard his bisected body fall to the ground.

I stood up again and turned to see Mag, who was rising unsteadily to her feet. For a moment as we looked at each other. An impression of a memory struck me and I felt a sudden spark of relief that she was safe.

The voice of the woman fed through my ears again and interrupted my thoughts. "Tenno you beat Vor but Grineer soldiers are on the way, bring Rhino's body, we can repair him when it's safe. Head to extraction immediately."

I looked from Mag towards the still body of Rhino on the floor across the room. With my new strength I picked up Rhino's body and followed Mag through the base.

She lead me through empty corridors to a room with three human shaped indents in it, not unlike where the Grineer had held me in captivity. I knew they were safe though and I propped Rhino's body against one of the indentations where his Body stuck fast as if magnetised.

I and Mag did the same on the other two indentations and as I felt the engine of the ship pulling me away from the facility I let myself relax for the first time since I had woken up. I was safe, I was home. I knew my purpose and my name.

I am Excalibur, master of the blade.


End file.
